State Confirms Deal to Buy University Site : Education: It will be years before students can attend classes at 260-acre locale near Camarillo. Construction funding is up to voters.

Three decades after the search first began for a university site in Ventura County, state officials Tuesday confirmed an agreement to purchase 260 acres of farmland near Camarillo for Cal State Ventura.

But it will be years before students can attend classes at what state planners hope will become Ventura County’s first public four-year college. And funding for construction depends on California voters approving a bond for higher education.

One day after word leaked out about the settlement, the state chancellor’s office formally announced that negotiations ended successfully between Cal State and Mohseni Ranch, the larger of two property owners who for years resisted selling the lemon groves.

The agreement, which voids a condemnation lawsuit under way, calls for the state to purchase two agricultural parcels in the greenbelt between Camarillo and Oxnard, said David Leveille, Cal State director of institutional relations, who made the announcement.

Although the state university system has set aside enough money to buy the acreage, Leveille said, very little has been saved to design and build the campus, which he said would serve 15,000 full-time students when it is completed in 20 or 30 years.

“We do not have the financial resources to construct anything,” said Leveille, who said building the campus would depend largely on whether voters approve a higher education bond in the 1996 California primary.

“Ventura County is one of the counties where the approval rate was worse” than the statewide average in the last bond election, he said, adding that Cal State would pursue private contributions from local businesses to support the campus.

Joyce M. Kennedy, director of the Cal State Northridge extension campus in Ventura, said she was thankful that county and state leaders never gave up on the latest site.

“It’s just a glorious day for Ventura County residents,” said Kennedy, who has fought for years to site a permanent campus. “We’re in a position now that we haven’t been in for 20 years, so this is a major advancement.”

Cal State officials bought 425 acres near Somis in 1969 to build a university, but sold the land seven years later when the project stalled.

Leveille and other officials declined to give the sales price for the 260 acres near Camarillo until escrow closes some time before April on the Mohseni Ranch and Sakioka Farms properties.

But the land is appraised at roughly $5 million, according to Daryl Brown, Ventura County’s chief deputy assessor. Transferring the private property to the state will take about $50,000 a year out of county tax revenues, he said.

The state’s purchase price includes court costs, attorney fees, appraisal and engineering costs, and any potential severance damages or claims arising from the now-moot condemnation process, said Marsha S. Miller, the deputy attorney general handling the case.

County work crews have nearly completed a series of drainage improvements in the area to prevent the farmland from flooding in heavy rains, Public Works Director Arthur E. Goulet said.

“We’ll be done long before (the state) does anything on the site,” he said.

The deal, made final late last week after a series of intensive negotiations, nearly fell through when property owner Michael Mohseni held out for a higher selling price, Leveille said.

“Mr. Mohseni as a business person wanted to get the best return on his investment that he could get from the state,” Leveille said.

But Leveille said he was prepared to walk away from the transaction and start “from ground zero” if the last offer was not accepted. “We were prepared to withdraw from that project,” he said.

Mohseni said Monday that he accepted the offer because he did not want to be responsible for delaying the campus any longer.

State Sen. Jack O’Connell, D-Carpinteria, said Tuesday that he hopes that Cal State Ventura will be operating in time for his daughter, now in the third grade, to enroll.

“I hope that’s a viable option not only for Jennifer O’Connell, but for all the other Jennifer O’Connells around the county,” he said.

Like Leveille, O’Connell said the next important step in building the campus would be to garner popular support for a higher education bond.

“We need to do a better job of educating the community about the benefits of having a CSU here,” O’Connell said. “We need to make a case to the CSU hierarchy that this is a priority.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Building a University

Here is a chronology of the quest to build a public university in Ventura County:

1963: California State College trustees recommend Ventura County as a state university site.

1965: Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr. signs legislation authorizing $20,000 for site acquisition studies.

1969: Cal State University purchases 425 acres of farmland near Somis to establish county’s first four-year college.

1974: UC / Cal State Learning Center opens in Ventura; Joyce M. Kennedy hired as director; campus attracts 48 students.

1976: Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. authorizes sale of the 425 acres after project stalls.

1985: State allocates $250,000 for new site selection study.

1986: Lusk property off Ventura Freeway near Seaward Avenue considered for site.

1987: Gov. George Deukmejian signs budget, guaranteeing $7 million to purchase Cal State site in Ventura County; Lusk property abandoned.

1988: Cal State Board of Trustees authorizes negotiations on Taylor Ranch property for permanent center; Ventura campus moves to Alessandro Drive.

1990: Acquisition of Taylor Ranch site abandoned after public outcry.

1991: Trustees authorize negotiations to acquire 260-acre site between Camarillo and Oxnard.

1992: Cal State files condemnation suit against Mohseni Ranch, the larger of two owners of the site.

1994: Cal State announces settlement of condemnation dispute with Mohseni Ranch; fall semester enrollment tops 1,400.